Thread: It was a sheer stroke of brilliance - I doff my hat to you

Hi,
Like when the Tas Govt released the go ahead for flooding Lake Pedder, Xmas eve would you believe.
Cheers

There is a term for this well established political event management. It is called burying bad news. This is achieved by as you have identified carefully selecting the release date

But who is going to read it apart from a few professionals?

Originally Posted by p38arover

But who is going to read it apart from a few professionals?

Hello P38 Rover,

The 7,944 submissions received and 1785 Private Sessions of people lived experience who contributed the Commission and their families could be reading it. Each disability provider should be reading it. Each government department especially schools should be reading it. Every member of society who gives a rats arse about their next door neighbour with a disability who one day is covered in bruises should read it. The contents of the Royal Commission was brought about by predators operating in the dark, while other people turn a blind eye, because they do not want to get involved, are the ones who should be reading it. It only takes a fall on a patch of oil in a shopping centre car park from a fully functional and totally independent person to become disabled. Then the person should be hoping that someone has read the document as well. I think the expression is There but for the grace of God, go I.

There should never have been a need for the Royal Commission in the first place if society was truly inclusive. It is a blight on the Australian community that the need for such a Royal Commission ever arose. Where the biggest boon to the predators is general apathy. Well, a state of apathy may exist until God's grace seems to have run out .. like what happened to the person who the phrase was attributed to.

Kind regards
Lionel

Hello All,

For those of you who are interested in the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability there is a web-page that links to the 12 volumes that form the Final Report. Accessed 7th October 2023 Final Report | Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

There is also the Final Report - Executive Summary, Our vision for an Inclusive Australia and Recommendations
It can be accessed from, Final Report - Executive Summary, Our vision for an Inclusive Australia and Recommendations | Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

Kind regards
Lionel

Maybe we should read it but we won't.

Originally Posted by p38arover

Maybe we should read it but we won't.

Here is a quote from a German pastor Martin

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller

Accessed 7th October 2023 from, Martin Niemoller: "First they came for the Socialists..." | Holocaust Encyclopedia

The saddest part of Martin Niemoller's statement is it leaves out the first group of people they came for - it was people with disability cited from Burleigh. (1994) Death and Deliverance. Euthanasia in Germany, 1900–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Here is an extract from one of my first drafts of my Doctoral thesis... It was eliminated in later drafts. However, I still have a copy...

The photograph is of the propaganda poster used in the Second World War (Burleigh, 1994, p. 188). Burleigh, (1994, p. 188-192) cites how a country during World War Two made propaganda posters and films that were produced to garner support for euthanasia of people with a disability. One poster shows a strong worker carrying a yoke on their bent down shoulders. Perched on either end of the yoke are two people who are represented as having obvious disabilities. The banner of the title which was translated by Angelika Schlotzer, a lecturer at Central Queensland University reads…


Here carry you with
One hereditarily ill person costs, until the attainment of
60 life years, on average of 50,000 RM (Reichsmarken)

Schlotzer suspects that a modern translation of the propaganda poster's text would be read along the lines of:

You too carry part of the burden
One person with a disability
costs on average 50,000 RM (Reichsmarken)
to support over a lifespan of 60 years.

Since having that old World War Two propaganda poster translated I frequently hear echoes of words that were used in the World War Two dated propaganda posters being reflected again within the current Australian media. Headlines and sound-bytes highlighting the "cost" of disability and how it is burdening the Australian tax payer and threatening to blow out the annual budget. For example, Burton (2022) NDIS cost to blow out to $64b by 2030: actuary report - Financial Review. April 27, 2022. Accessed 8th October 2023 from, NDIS cost to blow out to $64b by 2030: actuary report. When the first discussions about planning the NDIS were being made I was very concerned that the scheme would result in the commoditisation of an individuals with disability. Where people would be evaluated on the dollar value of their NDIS plan. Where, the first thing a potential disability service provider wants to know is what amount of money the individual with disability's NDIS plan is valued at. Later when the NDIS came into effect, I was working with the NDIS Local Area Coordinator and I heard service providers and support workers say such things as "no we cannot lose that client because their NDIS plan is worth $$$$. It will blow a huge hole in our budget if they leave us". Or, "that person makes up 90 percent of my wage."

A recent ABC TV Four Corners episode Careless is about how the NDIS fails to protect our most vulnerable. Anne Connolly and the Four Corners team expose criminals, opportunists and registered providers who have been busted exploiting loopholes to overcharge and defraud the NDIS. Accessed 8th October 2023 from, Four Corners : ABC iview

It is also equally disturbing when you consider that just 10 years ago there was Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs that investigated Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities in Australia (2013). These practices of coerced sterilisation were not buried in a foreign country and left to rest after the Second World War. This practice was being investigated in Australia just 10 years ago. A copy of this 2013 Senate Report can be accessed via https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary...rt/report.ashx

Maybe mine is an extreme view. Maybe I am just being melodramatic. Surely, we are more civilised then back during the Second World War and such things can never happen again. Unfortunately, as the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability attests - perhaps we as a civilisation have not progressed that much at all. We just like to think we have.

As I wrote before ... There are times when I see and hear the drums being beaten again about predicted NDIS budget blow outs and I flashback to the old propaganda poster I had translated for my PhD and I shiver and I pray.

Kind regards
Lionel